In this reading, we see how a mother loved one child more than the other and we get to find the reasons and impact of that. Lady Chiang had two babies. She hated the elder one who later became the emperor of Cheng. The reason the mother hated her first born was that he gave her a difficult time when she gave birth to him. The mother loved his younger brother Tuan of Kung and wished that he should be the successor of the throne. Because of the pain of child birth that the elder one gave her she had no affection towards him. This made the Lady biased towards the younger one. Even when the sons grew up, Lady Chiang was biased towards Tuan of Kung and wanted him to become the successor of the throne. Against her will, Duke Chuang was made the emperor of Cheng. She then too kept pushing the elder son to give a significant position to his younger brother. This led to a chaos as the younger one who assumed that he deserved the entire kingdom, rebelled against his own brother where the mother again sided with the rebellious son. The episode dissects how painful it was for the Duke to watch his mother stand against him and he strained all ties with her and vowed not to meet her again until they reach the yellow springs . Later, he regretted this decision and the emotions inside him urged him to find a way to meet her. The minister, Ying K’ao-shu’s love for his own mother became a way for the Duke to realize the importance of his mother. Then the mother and the son re-united at the end of the story.
WORKS CITED
Mair, Victor H. The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
